Well, actually I can.
First off, welcome back C&F!
Now to my question…
Where does one breath on the tune ‘The Lark in the Morning’?
I am struggling with it… I have tried breathing at each repeat and when going into the A, B, and C parts. Makes one short of breath after a while.
Hi Hillfolk,
do you have a recording of the tune to listen to? That usually gives a good idea to the phasing & breathing.
Looking at the sheetmusic, I’d get a breath at the end of any longer notes - e.g. B part bar 1 there’s a quaver, so cut it to a crotchet and grab a breath - again in bar 3, again on the dotted quaver in bar 5 etc. You probably won’t need all these breaths, but they’re good places to catch a gulp without putting the rhythm out.
In the C part, there are staccato quavers in bars 1,3 and 5 (a dot over the note indicates staccato - i.e. tongued). Any of these can be used to grab a breath.
Laura,
Martin’s suggestions will help, but looking at the sheet music is only a temporary patch to the problem. For one thing, it assumes you are always going to play the tune in exactly the same way (shudder) and for another you would probably have to do the same exercise for any new jig or dance tune that you learn.
The first step to a permanent solution is to listen, really listen, to recordings of flute and whistle players and start noticing how they deal with the problem of where to breathe. Listen so much that it enters the subconscious.
In the meantime, as far as playing jigs is concerned, you must - absolutely must - master the skill of dropping the middle note in a group of three quavers (eighth notes) and snatching a breath instead. Many students are very reluctant to do this initially - but once you’ve got the hang of it, where to breathe in jigs will never be a problem for you again.
Of course, this implies a willingness to change the tune spontaneously - so drop the sheet music asap and start working on making the tunes your own.
Ditto StevieJ’s comments - I only suggested looking for possible breathing spaces in the sheetmusic if you didn’t have a recording as a guide, and as an idea of how to tackle the problem.
Also a good idea to check out Brother Steve’s website which gives sound advice on all aspects of whistle playing.
Thank you Gents,
Funny you mention the sheet music… I tried looking for it the other day and could not find it. So I was strickly pulling from memory.
I remembered the tune, actually it went better than having sheet music to it. However, as mentioned before, my breathing was off.
I agree the C part has good breathing places to it. There I can get back into the swing of the jig, then to the D part.
I will check through my cds to see if I have the tune played by whistle.
And give a good long listen!!!
I will also check out BRo Steve… have not been to that website for awhile.
Thanks again,
Laura